The Harrington Park Green Team was formed in September 2009 as an advisory body to the Harrington Park Environmental Commission. The Green Team is composed of borough officials and residents who are “committed to developing strategies that will reduce our impact on the environment both collectively and individually, so that we might preserve our town’s natural resources for the citizens of Harrington Park now and in the future”. We meet monthly before the EC meeting to discuss and plan actions on areas of HP resident concern relating to our environment and to pursue mandatory and elective actions toward Sustainable Jersey certification.
Harrington Park has been successful at attaining BRONZE level Sustainable Jersey certification in 2012, 2013, and 2014, each year completing more actions. In 2014 four new actions – Outreach Campaign to Local Business Community, Create a Policy and Recycled Materials & Composting, and Diversity on Boards & Commissions – were completed bringing our point total up to 210 points! The 2014 Certification report can be accessed from the Sustainable Jersey website through this link. http://www.sustainablejersey.com/certification/participating-communities/certification-report/?tx_sjcert_certification%5Bcertification%5D=268&tx_sjcert_certification%5Baction%5D=show&tx_sjcert_certification%5Bcontroller%5D=Certification&cHash=9f428ca0cb6facc5a6b076ff8222d1a0

Since Green Team efforts toward SJ certification started, there has been a positive change in culture, appearance and practices in our community, especially noticeable at the Harrington Park K-8 School. Green Team members, borough employees, and Mayor and Council members report only positive feedback on the Green Team outreach efforts, which include manning informational tables at town events, contributing information to borough mailings and the town website, as well as maintaining an active and increasing facebook and wordpress weblog presence.

The Harrington Park EC and Green Team are looking forward to pursuing SJ recertification again this year. Starting on Jan 7, 2015 the Green Team meetings will be incorporated into the Environmental Commission meetings – we will meet at 7:30pm in borough hall (on the first Wednesday of the month). Community members are welcome to attend and we encourage you to join us in our efforts to keep HP green!